The Apple Beat: Games ruling the App game

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The first wave of iPad 2 challengers for the year have shipped or have at least found themselves in the hands or reviewers but it seems not one is convincingly a runaway hit. We now have Google's Android, RIM's PlayBook and HP's webOS all with players in the game but the iPad 2 seems to have the momentum going into the second half of the year.

Demand continues to be high for the iPad 2 even in Apple's own retail stores which still get a limited stock of the devices. From what we've seen, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1" inch tablet is the closest true competitor to the iPad 2 in terms of size, thinness and performance but this model isn't going to be available until July 22nd.

Most of the other Honeycomb tablets like Motorola's XOOM and Acer's Iconia Tab seem to be designed more like the chunkier original iPad. Honeycomb tablets have had very little in terms of application and early adopters of these tablets are lamenting the slow development in this area.

HP's TouchPad, which is still to ship, seems oddly similar in design to the iPhone 3GS and is larger and heavier than the iPad 2. Many believe the HP TouchPad's strength to lie in the software rather than the hardware but we'll reserve our comment on that until we've had ample time with the device.

Opportunities in the 7"inch Tablet space

The Apple Newton PDA is the closest thing to a 7" inch Apple Tablet we'll ever seeBigger opportunities exist in the 7" inch tablet space because it is highly unlikely that Apple will be a player here. For one thing, it would foolishly cannibalize their tablet market as well as their iPod Touch and iPhone market as well as make it hell for developers to support yet another form-factor and screen size. 

We might see a larger iPhone or more likely a larger iPod Touch which, while not really a tablet device per se, is still a compelling handheld computer with an already stellar selection of applications. Making a slightly larger (4.5" inch or 5" inch) screen is easier for iPhone designed apps to scale than 7" inches.

"This size (7" inch tablets) is useless unless you include sandpaper so users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of their size," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said during an earnings call last year to dispel any notion that Apple is remotely interested in this size of tablet. Apple is all about user experience so if it feels that iOS won't scale nicely on that size then it isn't going to happen.

This leaves the door open for RIM, Samsung and HTC or any other 7" inch tablet maker to really make a significant run. We see the PlayBook taking over this space because its mix of hardware and innovative software might differentiate it from the Android tablets forcing a smartphone OS onto a tablet shape.

Nielsen: Game apps more popular than work apps

A new study by Nielsen shows that 93% of US smartphone users who downloaded an app within the past 30 days were willing to pay for the games they play.

The  second-most popular category that people were willing to pay for was "entertainment" at 87%. The survey data also shows iPhone owners play games for roughly 14.7 hours a month while Android owners play for around 9.3 hours a month.

iPhone users are also the most likely to download games directly onto their phone, rather than preload, sideload them or play web-based games.  Weather apps, Social  Networking and Maps/Navigation/Search make us the rest of the major app categories Check out the app chart from Nielsen below.

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Gadjo Sevilla is a long time Mac user and technician and has been covering Apple's business and products for over 15 years. The Apple Beat is a weekly opinion column focusing on the latest Apple news.